Publications & CD

Kenilworth History 2024

The latest KHAS annual booklet Kenilworth History 2024: Recent Research into Local History will soon be available, priced £5 or free to members.

As ever, Kenilworth History 2024 will be available for purchase from Kenilworth Books in Talisman Square, following the AGM on Monday 12th February. It will also be available from the Abbey Museum & Heritage Centre, when it reopens at Easter.

Kenilworth History 2024
Kenilworth History 2024

The articles in this year’s edition cover a broad continuum of Kenilworth’s long history:-

We kick off with an article from Norman Stevens, who adds more recently unearthed detail to a pair of articles we have published in recent years, on the topic of the Abbey conduit and the suspected former Anglo-Saxon chapel of ease on Castle Green. Next we have an article from David Brock who provides an introduction to the Abbey’s penultimate abbot William Wall, whose previously unknown property register caused quite a stir when it was recently presented to the Warwickshire Record Office.

Next, we bring you some details on the exciting find of a rare Iron Age gold stater, found near Rouncil Lane by KHAS member Roy Crick, just over a year ago, which was minted in an era long before Kenilworth was founded. Roy’s find prompted the next article from Chris Blunt, where he attempts to understand what such Iron Age coin scatter evidence can tell us about the people who later founded Kenilworth. Is it possible to shed some light on which kingdoms they belonged to?

Following that, Nick Green and Barry Rose bring us an interesting article on the rich and varied life of Barry’s grandfather Harold Newey, once of Newey Cottage on the High Street. After that we have Joanna Illingworth’s insight into the links between Odiham Castle in Hampshire and our very own Kenilworth Castle.

After that, a short piece from Chris Blunt about the various forms and spellings of the word ‘Kenilworth’ recorded in documentary sources going back to 1086, and some conjectural spellings and orthography showing how the name might have been written before the Norman Conquest, should such a hitherto undiscovered source ever come to light. Following that, Henny Denny brings some insight into, and a translation of, the third and last chronicle in the Berlin Bibliothek folio bundle Historia Romana, once housed in Kenilworth Abbey Library, the original of which was written by Paul the Deacon in the 8th century.

Next, we have the latest instalment in our long running series Kenilworth in Print, this time focussing on the newly published book ‘Building Jerusalem – The Life and Times of Charles Sumner, Bishop of Winchester, 1790 – 1874’ by Christopher Herbert (who also provides us our rather dramatic-looking cover image). Afterwards, is another thought-provoking piece of historiography by George Evans-Hulme, on the topic of contextualisation, bias in historical writings and whether such bias can actually serve a useful purpose for us as historians. 

Finally, an open-ended piece from Chris Blunt on the coincidence of Breccia deposits with sites of known stone quarrying around the town, which is really crying out for somebody who knows more about stonemasonry and / or geology than myself to confirm whether this is significant or – just that – a coincidence!

We hope you enjoy Kenilworth History and wish you a happy and healthy 2024!


Kenilworth History on CD – 1981 to 2015

A CD containing every issue of Kenilworth History from 1981 to 2015 (inclusive) is now available. It has on it also a file of all the ‘Tables of Content’, six spreadsheets of those contents sorted by date, author, title, and three subject categories, and one continuous file of all the KHs so that it can subjected to a wordsearch from beginning to end – a really valuable resource for any researcher. The Society is charging £5 a CD, which, if you consider that people in the Town bought over 60 copies of KH2015 alone for £5 from the Bookshop, is incredibly good value for money:

Kenilworth History 1981 to 2015
Kenilworth History 1981 to 2015


The Siege of Kenilworth – 750th Anniversary Programme

The Siege of Kenilworth – 750th Anniversary Programme is still available from various sources, including Kenilworth Books in Talisman Square:

The Siege of Kenilworth 750th Anniversary Booklet


A Guide to the Historic Town of Kenilworth

Some years ago the Society produced a guidebook covering the historic sites of Kenilworth, which is still available from various sources, including Kenilworth Books in Talisman Square:

Guide to the Historic Town of Kenilworth


Other Pamphlets

A number of pamphlets are available at a nominal fee, as well as books at a discounted rate, at KHAS meetings – see the KHAS programme page for details of where and when these take place.